Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale
Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale is the fourth episode of the first season of Monk. Plot The opening scene shows a large silhouette against a window with a baseball bat held over his head. The police get a 911 call from the house where a judge named Catherine Lavinio screams that a man is in her house. There are screams and then nothing more. The judge is found bludgeoned to death in her bedroom the next day. Monk is called in. At first he can't understand why, since the case seems straightforward: the intruder broke into the house while the judge was in her kitchen, chased her upstairs and beat her to death, then came downstairs to disconnect the smoke alarm when what she was cooking started to burn. The baseball bat was left behind, and bears the initials "D.B."; a passing neighborhood girl saw the intruder through the window when he disconnected the alarm; and the judge even identified her attacker by name: Dale J. Biederbeck III, a very rich and very vengeful financier. The mystery: Biederbeck, also known as "Dale the Whale," weighs upwards of 800 pounds, so monstrously fat that he cannot rise from his bed, or even fit through the doorway of his bedroom, which he has not left in 11 years. This is confirmed when the police and Monk go to interview Biederbeck and his personal physician, Dr. Christiaan Vezza. Biederbeck cheerfully admits to hating Judge Lavinio, who issued an antitrust ruling against him that cost hundreds of millions of dollars. He also taunts Monk, whom he has met before, over Trudy's cryptic last words. Monk is convinced that Biederbeck is the killer, despite all the evidence. Dr. Vezza also takes an interest in Sharona. Monk suspects that Biederbeck may be faking his immobility. Since a criminal judge refuses to issue a search warrant, Stottlemeyer has the idea of sending Sharona undercover as Biederbeck's nurse. However, Biederbeck sees through her and delights in goading her with some details from her life in Atlantic City, and also the full details of his feud with Monk: a few years ago, Trudy wrote an unflattering article about him, so he sued her and Adrian in a costly libel suit. Ultimately he lost, but succeeded in bankrupting the Monks with legal costs, forcing them to sell their first home. For his finale, Dale gleefully lifts the front of his pajamas, showing Sharona that his obesity is not faked (and sending her hurtling from the room in paroxyms of nausea). The next day, however, she recovers enough to remember one thing she saw in Biederbeck's apartment: videotapes of the judge, mostly news footage. Over an emergency session with Dr. Kroger, Monk confides that he hates Biederbeck, who tormented Trudy over a whole year, what would turn out to be one of the last years of her life. He is worried that it is corrupting his judgment. But then he realizes that several aspects of the crime scene were staged: the judge ate out on the night she was killed, and brought her leftovers home, so she wouldn't have been cooking. The neighborhood girl saw a "very fat man" standing on a chair to disconnect the smoke alarm. When Monk and Sharona visit Dr. Vezza's clinic, and he mentions that he's just celebrated his 37th birthday, Monk solves the case. Here's What Happened Monk, Stottlemeyer, Sharona, and Disher confront Biederbeck and Vezza. Monk reveals that Vezza killed the judge on Biederbeck's orders. After entering the house, he staged the crime scene, including the 911 call (he's a great impressionist, and practiced the voice using the videotapes of the judge). He set off the smoke alarm so he could be seen through the window, wearing a fat suit. The idea was to leave behind clues pointing to Biederbeck, the one person who couldn't possibly have done it. He made two mistakes: first, the chair he stood on to disconnect the alarm would have broken under the weight of a man as heavy as he appeared; second, he claims to have been named after Christiaan Barnard, a famous heart surgeon, who wasn't famous until 1965, two years after he was born. It is revealed that "Vezza" is in fact a defrocked surgeon named Glenn Sindell, who was facing 15 years in prison for manslaughter (he killed a child by operating on her while intoxicated). Biederbeck knew his secret, and could make him do whatever he wanted. Biederbeck laughs off the idea that he can be connected to the crime, but Vezza/Sindell gladly agrees to testify against his former boss. In rage, Biederbeck tries to sit up and strangle Monk, but can't lift himself high enough. During a walk, Monk confides to Sharona the meaning of Trudy's last words to him. Trivia * This episode is the first appearance of "Dale the Whale," who will become a recurring villain on the series, though he is played by different actors in later appearances. * This episode is also the first of several based on the "He/she couldn't possibly have done it" premise. Later examples would include "Mr. Monk Goes to the Circus" and "Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect." 1.04